Gordon saw then that whatever else the men of the Cloud might be, they were not cowards. Knowing himself trapped, knowing instant destruction was the penalty for being caught here in Empire space after the destruction of an Empire ship, Holl Vonn came out fighting!
Atom-guns of the Merle volleyed exploding shells at the swooping Empire ships. The nebula sky seemed to burst into blinding brilliance with the explosions.
It was magnificent but hopeless, that charge of one phantom against four heavy cruisers. The great batteries of the cruisers seemed literally to smother the Merle in atom-shells.
Blossoming flowers of atomic fire unfolded and momentarily concealed the Cloud ship. Then it was revealed as a fusing, fiery wreck that hurtled headlong across the sky to crash in the distant jungle.
"Zarth, look out!" screamed Lianna at that instant, and pushed Gordon aside.
An atomic pellet flicked close past his face and exploded in a nearby thicket!
Durk Undis, his face deadly, was close by and was raising his weapon to fire again. Lianna had desperately grasped his arm.
Gordon realized then the tenacity of the young Cloud-captain, who had remained and followed to kill Lianna and himself.
"By Heaven, I'll finish it now!" Durk Undis was exclaiming, hurling Lianna violently away from him with a sweep of his arm.
Gordon, charging, reached him at that moment. The Cloud-man uttered a sound of sudden agony as Gordon fiercely twisted his arm. The atom-pistol dropped from his fingers. Eyes blazing, he kneed Gordon in the stomach and smashed hard fists into his face.
Gordon hardly felt the blows, in his overpowering passion. He rocked forward and fell with the Cloud-man as they grappled.
Braced with his back against the trunk of a towering golden tree, Durk Undis got his hands on Gordon's throat and squeezed.
Gordon felt a roaring in his ears, and a sudden blackness swept over him. His groping hands grabbed the Cloud-man's bristling black hair. He hammered Durk Undis' head violently back against the tree.
He was so deep in that roaring blackness that it was only after many minutes that Lianna's voice penetrated his ears.
"Zarth, it's over! He's dead!"
Gordon, gulping air into starved lungs, felt his senses clearing. He found himself still gripping Durk Undis' hair.
The whole back of the Cloud-man's skull was a bloody mess where he had hammered it again and again against the tree-trunk.
He staggered up to his feet, sick, almost retching. Lianna sprang to his side as he swayed.
"Lianna, I didn't see him. If you hadn't cried out and rushed him, he'd have killed me."
A stern new voice rang suddenly from close by. Gordon staggered around to face that direction.
Gray-uniformed Empire soldiers with raised atom-guns were forcing through the soft-lit jungle toward them. One of the Empire cruisers had landed nearby, while the others still hovered overhead.
The man who spoke was a hard-eyed, handsome young Empire captain who stared wonderingly at Gordon's disheveled figure and Lianna.
"You two don't look like Cloud-people! But you were with them-"
He stopped suddenly and took a step forward. His eyes peered at Gordon's bruised, bloody face.
"Prince Zarth Arn!" he cried, stupefied. Then his eyes flamed hatred and passion. "By Heaven, we've caught you! And with Cloud-men! You joined them when you fled from Throon!"
A quiver of passion ran through all the Empire soldiers who had gathered. Gordon saw mortal hatred in their eyes.
The young captain stiffened. "I am Captain Dar Carrul of the Empire navy and I arrest you for the assassination of the late emperor and for treason!"
Gordon, dazed as he was, found his voice at that. "I didn't murder Arn Abbas! And I didn't join the Cloud-I was held prisoner by these Cloud-men and only just escaped before you came!"
He pointed at the corpse of Durk Undis. "He tried to kill me before letting me escape! And what brought you to this planet searching? An untuned signal-wave from here, wasn't it?"
Dar Carrul looked startled. "How did you know that? Yes, it is true that our operators detected such a signal coming from this uninhabited world, when we were searching space west of the nebula."
"Zarth sent that signal!" Lianna told him. "He used that method to attract Empire ships here!"
Dar Carrul looked a little bewildered. "But everyone knows you killed your father! Commander Corbulo saw you do it! And you fled from Throon-"
"I didn't flee, I was carried off," Gordon declared. He cried earnestly, "All I ask is to be taken to Throon to tell my story!" Dar Carrul seemed more and more perplexed by the unexpected turn of the situation.
"You will certainly be taken to Throon for trial," he told Gordon. "But it is not for a mere squadron captain to handle such a grave matter as this one. I will take you under guard to our main squadron and report for instructions."
"Let me talk at once by stereo to my brother, to Jhal Arn!" pleaded Gordon tautly.
Dar Carrul's face tightened. "You are a proclaimed fugitive, charged with the gravest of crimes against the Empire. I cannot allow you to send messages. You must wait until I receive instructions."
He made a gesture, and a dozen soldiers with drawn atom-guns stepped forward around Gordon and Lianna.
"I must ask you to enter our ship at once," the young captain said clippedly.
Ten minutes later, the cruiser took off from the nebula-world of horror. With the other three Empire cruisers, it raced out westward through the vast glow of Orion Nebula.
In the cabin in which they two had been placed under guard, Gordon paced furiously to and fro.
"If they only let me tell Jhal Arn of the danger, of Corbulo's treachery!" he rasped. "If that has to wait till we're taken to Throon, it might be too late!"
Lianna looked worried. "Even when we get to Throon, it may not be easy to convince Jhal Arn of your innocence, Zarth."
Gordon's taut anger was chilled by that. "But they've got to believe me! They surely won't credit Corbulo's lies when I tell them the truth?"
"I hope not," Lianna murmured. She added with a flash of pride, "I will corroborate your story. And I am still princess of Fomalhaut Kingdom!"
Hours seemed to drag as the cruisers hurtled headlong out of Orion Nebula, and on westward through open space.
Lianna slept exhaustedly after a time. But Gordon could not sleep. His very nerve seemed taut as he sensed the approaching climax of the gigantic galactic game in which he had been but a pawn.
He must convince Jhal Arn of the truth of his story! And he must do so quickly, for as soon as Shorr Kan learned that he had escaped to tell the truth, the master of the Cloud would act swiftly.
Gordon's head ached. Where would it all end? Was there any real chance of his clearing up this great tangle and getting to Earth for the re-exchange of bodies with the real Zarth Arn?
Finally the cruisers decelerated. Orion Nebula was now a glow in the starry heavens far behind them. Close ahead lay the shining clusters of suns of the Pleiades. And near the Pleiades' famous beacon-group there stretched a far-flung echelon of tiny sparks.
The sparks were ships! Warships of the Mid-Galactic Empire's great navy cruising here off the Pleiades, one of the many mighty squadrons watching and warding the Empire's boundaries!
Lianna had awakened. She looked out with him as the cruiser slowly moved past gigantic battleships, columns of grim cruisers, slim phantoms and destroyers and scouts.
"This is one of the main battle-fleets of the Empire," she murmured.
"Why are we being kept here, instead of letting us give our warning?" sweated Gordon.
Their cruiser drew up alongside a giant battleship, the hulls grating together. They heard a rattle of machinery.
Then the cabin door opened and young Dar Carrul entered. "I have received orders to transfer you at once to our flagship, the Ethne."
"But let us talk first by stereo to Throon, to the Emperor!" Gordon cried. "Man, what we have to
tell may save the whole Empire from disaster!"
Dar Carrul shook his head curtly. "My orders are that you are to send no messages but are to be transferred immediately. I presume that the Ethne will take you at once to Throon."
Gordon stood, sick with disappointment and hope delayed. Lianna plucked his arm.
"It won't take long for that battleship to reach Throon, and then you'll be able to tell," she encouraged.
The two went with guards around them down through the cruiser to a hatchway. From it a short tubular gangway had been run to the battleship.
They went through it under guard of soldiers from the battleship. Once inside the bigger ship, the gangway was cast off and the airlock closed.
Gordon looked around the vestibule chamber at officers and guards. He saw the hatred in their faces as they looked at him. They too thought him assassin of his father, traitor to the Empire!
"I demand to see the captain of this battleship immediately," he rasped, to the lieutenant of guards.
"He is coming now," answered the lieutenant icily, as a tramp of feet came from a corridor.
Gordon swung toward the newcomers, with on his lips a fiery request to be permitted to call Throon. He never uttered it.
For he was looking at a stocky, uniformed figure, a man whose grizzled, square face and bleak eyes he knew only too well.
"Corbulo!" he cried.
Commander Corbulo's bleak eyes did not waver as his harsh voice lashed out at Gordon.
"Yes, traitor, it is I. So you two have been caught at last?"
"You call me traitor!" Gordon choked. "You yourself the greatest traitor in all history-"
Chan Corbulo turned coldly toward the tall, swarthy Arcturian captain who had entered with him and was glaring at Gordon.
"Captain Marlann, there is no need to take this assassin and his accomplice to Throon for trial. I saw them murder Arn Abbas! As Commander of the Empire fleet, I adjudge them guilty by space-law and order them executed immediately!"
21: Mutiny in the Void
Gordon's mind rocked to disastrous realization. As he stared frozenly into Chan Corbulo's grim triumphant face, he understood what had happened.
As Commander of the Empire navy, Corbulo had received the report of the capture of Gordon and Lianna. The arch-traitor had known that he must not let Gordon return to Throon with what he knew. So he had swiftly come here and ordered the two captives brought aboard his own flagship to do away with them before they could tell what they knew.
Gordon looked wildly around the circle of officers. "You've got to believe me! I'm no traitor! It was Corbulo himself who murdered my father and who is betraying the Empire to Shorr Kan!"
He saw hard, cold unbelief and bitter hatred in the officers' faces. Then Gordon recognized one familiar face.
It was the craggy red face of Hull Burrel, the Antarian captain who had saved him from the Cloud-raiders on Earth. He remembered now that for that, Hull Burrel had been promoted aide to the Commander.
"Hull Burrell, you surely believe me!" Gordon appealed. "You know that Shorr Kan tried to have me kidnapped before."
The big Antarian scowled. "I thought then he did. I didn't know then you were secretly in league with him, that all that was just pretense."
"I tell you, it wasn't pretense!" Gordon cried. "You've all let Corbulo pull the wool over your eyes."
Lianna, her gray eyes blazing in her white face, added, "Zarth speaks the truth! Corbulo is the traitor!"
Chan Corbulo made a brusque gesture. "We've had enough of these wild lies. Captain Marlann, see that they are locked out into space at once. It's the most merciful manner of execution."
The guards stepped forward. And then, as Gordon felt the bitterness of despair, he glimpsed the satisfied smirk in Corbulo's eyes and it stung him to a final desperate effort.
"You're letting Corbulo make fools of you all!" he raged. "Why is he so set on executing us instantly, instead of taking us to Throon for trial! Because he wants to silence us! We know too much!"
At last, Gordon perceived that he had made a little impression on the officers. Hull Burrel and others looked a little doubtful.
The Antarian glanced questioningly at Corbulo. "Commander, I beg you will pardon me if I'm overstepping my position. But perhaps it would be more regular to take them to Throon for trial."
Val Marlann, the swarthy Arcturian captain of this battleship, supported Hull Burrel. "Zarth Arn is one of the royal family, after all. And the princess Lianna is a ruler in her own right."
Lianna said swiftly, "This execution means that Fomalhaut Kingdom will break its alliance with the Empire, remember!"
Chan Corbulo's square face stiffened in anger. He had been confident that Gordon and Lianna were on the brink of death, and this slight hitch irritated him.
His irritation made Corbulo do the wrong thing. He tried to ride roughshod over the objections just advanced.
"There is no need to take black traitors and assassins to Throon!" he snapped. "We will execute them at once. Obey my orders!"
Gordon seized on that opportunity to make a flaming appeal to the gathered officers.
"You see? Corbulo will never let us go to Throon to tell what we know! Has he even reported our capture to the Emperor?"
Hull Burrel, with gathering trouble on his craggy face, looked at a young Earth-man officer.
"You are communication-officer, Verlin. Has any report of Zarth Arn's capture been made to the Emperor!"
Corbulo exploded in rage. "Burrel, how dare you question my conduct? By God, I'll break you for this!"
The young Earthman, Verlin, looked uncertainly at the raging Commander. Then he hesitantly answered Hull Burrel's question.
"No report of any kind has been made to Throon. The Commander ordered me to make no mention of the capture yet."
Gordon's voice crackled. "Doesn't that at least make you doubt?" he cried to the frowning officers. "Why should Corbulo keep my capture secret from my brother? It's because he knows Jhal Arn would order us brought to Throon for judgment, and he doesn't want that!"
And Gordon added passionately, "We do not ask for any pardon, for any clemency. If I'm guilty, I deserve execution. All I ask is to be taken to Throon for trial. If Corbulo persists in refusing that, it can only be because he is the traitor I say he is!"
Faces changed expression. And Gordon knew that he had finally awakened deep doubt in their minds.
"You're throwing away the Empire fleet if you let this traitor command it!" he pressed, "He's in league with Shorr Kan. Unless you let me go to Throon to prove that, the fleet and Empire are doomed!"
Hull Burrel looked around his fellow officers, and then at Chan Corbulo. "Commander, we mean no disrespect. But Zarth Arn's demand for a trial is reasonable. He should be taken to Throon."
A low chorus of supporting voices came from the other officers. Deep ingrained as was their discipline, deeper still was the doubt and the fear for the Empire that Gordon had awakened.
Corbulo's face flared dull red with fury. "Burrel, you're under arrest! By God, you'll take the spacewalk with these two for your insubordination! Guards, seize him!"
Tall, swarthy Captain Val Marlann stepped forward and intervened.
"Wait, guards! Commander Corbulo, you are supreme officer of the Empire fleet but I am captain of the Ethne. And I agree with Burrel that we cannot summarily execute these prisoners."
"Marlann, you're captain of the Ethne no longer!" raged Corbulo. "I hereby remove you and take personal command of this ship."
Val Marlann stiffened in open defiance as he rasped an answer.
"Commander, if I'm wrong I'm willing to take the consequences. But by God, something about all this does smell to Heaven! We're going to Throon and find out what it is!"
Gordon heard the mutter of agreement from the other officers. And Chan Corbulo heard it also.
The baffled rage on his grizzled face deepened, and he uttered a curse.
"Very well, then-to T
hroon! And when I get through with you at the courts-martial there, you'll wish you'd remembered your discipline. Insubordination in high space! Just wait!"
And Corbulo turned angrily and shouldered out of the room, going forward along a corridor.
Burrel and the other officers looked soberly at each other. Then Val Marlann spoke grimly to Gordon.
"Prince Zarth, you'll get the trial at Throon you asked for. And if you've not told the truth, it's our necks."
"It must be the truth!" Hull Burrel declared, "I never could understand why Zarth Arn should murder his own father! And why would Corbulo be so wild to execute them if the commander had nothing to hide?"
At that moment, from the annunciators throughout the ship, broke a loud voice.
"Commander Corbulo, to all hands! Mutiny has broken out on the Ethne! Captain Val Marlann and his chief officers, my aide Hull Burrel, and Prince Zarth and Princess Lianna are the ringleaders! All loyal men arm and seize the mutineers!"
Hull Burrel's blue eyes flashed an arctic light. "He's raising the ship against us! Val, get to the annunciators and call off the men! You can convince them!"
The officers plunged for the corridors leading up into the interior of the mighty battleship.
Gordon cried, "Lianna, wait here! There may be fighting!"
Then, as he ran with Hull Burrel and the others through the corridors, they heard a growing uproar somewhere ahead.
The great battleship was suddenly in chaos, alarm bells ringing, voices yelling from the annunciators, feet pounding through the corridors.
The spacemen who had rushed to obey the supreme commander's order were now bewildered by a clash of authority. Some, who tried to obey and arrest Val Marlann and his officers, were instantly attacked by those of their own comrades who remained loyal to the ship's captain.
In most of the ship, the crew had not had time to arm. Improvised metal clubs and fists took the place of atom-pistols. Battle joined and raged swiftly in crewrooms, in gun-galleries, in corridors.
Gordon and Hull Burrel found themselves with Val Marlann in the midst of a seething, battling mob in the main mid-deck corridor.
"I've got to get through to an annunciator switchboard!" cried Val Marlann. "Help me crash through them!"
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